Money, ends, and justifying the meeting.

I'm very amused today. I was looking at my finances, as I'm very likely to do every so often, and was surprised to see that, even though I've entirely cut back on purchases outside of groceries, gas, and about $15 of miscellanious items per week, I simply cannot make ends meet.

Now, it's not like I'm going to starve, or that I won't make all my payments. I'm just going back to eating a bit lighter, not dining out very often, and I may be making a few payments a few days late.

I'm still reeling financially from the change from monthly pay to bi-weekly pay back in May, as well as the increase in my housing costs that same month. I cut festivals out of my plans as things got tighter and stopped traveling. Next year, I'll be skipping a few festivals I attended this year, for sure.

I would be completely unable to go to Walking With Fire if I hadn't managed a loan for it. Fortunately, with tickets bought and paid for (and only one dinner owed to make up the last eleven dollars), I'm set on festivals for this year, and will have attended all the festivals that I felt were vital to making this a good festival year.

Now, I'm not complaining about my expenses. When you have a house payment, a car payment, and regular utilities, you need to be prepared for those things. Car insurance and regular maintenance come with owning a car (not having money for those things means you don't have money for a car). Pets come with yearly shots and vet visits as well as regular food (again, if you can't afford these, you shouldn't have an animal).

At this point, I haven't missed any payments because I've actually, surprisingly been that up on my budgeting and finances. And that's scary.

But by the end of the week, this situation is almost certain to have changed.

So I've been looking at second jobs, and thinking about what a second job would mean. I've listed out things that would probably be affected, and taken careful stock of them.

The Grove: This is my largest concern for obvious reasons. I've committed to two more years as a Senior Druid, and as long as I'm in that position, the Grove is my highest priority. Which means that I need to keep my Thursday nights free for business meetings and my Sundays free for rituals.

PSA: This is one night a week, so scheduling around it shouldn't be hard. Then again, I've been considering my involvement in the PSA. Much as I love it, it's running strong and hasn't needed me for a long time. Besides, I can always keep an eye on it via email.

My first job: My work for OIT can't suffer. Not one bit. Ohio State has been remarkably good to me in the long run, and I owe it to them to provide the same quality of work (if not better) as I do now. Low morale is no excuse for poor performance.

My social life: Esh, I couldn't fuckin' care less. Being single has some serious advantages when it comes to time.

My health: again, esh. Whatever. I got better things to do than worry about that.

In general, I'm looking at things that take little to no previous skill: stocking items at a lumber yard or home improvement store (always good exercise), working fast food (good for practicing simple addition and subtraction), or maybe amature night at the local male strip club.

Hell, I might be joking about that last one.

But something has to give, and it appears that it's going to be me :) One of those things that just has to be done, I suppose.

And yes, I'm also looking for a job that pays better. This needs a much faster solution, though. I'm not officially decided on getting a second job. . . but my situation may decide I need to for me.